Surface maintenance machines include vehicles and devices that can be self-powered, towed, or pushed, and/or manually powered. Surface maintenance machines commonly include a cleaning head having one or more maintenance tools (e.g., a rotating drum brush) operated by one or more motors. Each maintenance tool is configured to perform a desired treating operation on the surface. For example, in cases where the surface maintenance machine is a surface maintenance machine, one or more brushes sweep dirt and debris from a surface and throw loose debris into a hopper. The brush may be housed in a maintenance tool chamber in such cases.
Typically during the operation of a sweeper, sweeping tools that move and direct debris and generate particulate may cause adverse air currents that can be hard to control. In such cases, a vacuum system directing airflow in a predetermined direction can be commonly used to control the particulate and adverse air currents that are generated during the sweeping process. The surface maintenance machine may also include skirt assemblies comprising a single row of skirts on the front, lateral sides and/or rear of the machine, under which vacuum may be generated by the vacuum system thereby drawing particulate toward the hopper. As a result of the presence of the front skirt, large debris may not get drawn inward toward the machine during the sweeping process, and may be thrown off (sometimes referred to as “plowing.”)